cars

Filed under: Car Buying, GM, Porsche

J.D. Power and Associates has released its annual Initial Quality Study, and this year, Porsche and General Motors took the spotlight. The study, which asks new car owners to report problems experienced during the first 90 days of ownership, found that overall, the industry averages 113 problems per 100 vehicles. Porsche managed a score of just 80 problems per 100 vehicles, while GMC took the second spot on the podium with 90. Lexus filled out the top three with 94 problems per 100 vehicles, followed by Infiniti at 95 and Chevrolet at 97. The study also looks at specific models, and found the Lexus LS to enjoy the best initial quality at 59 problems per 100 vehicles. Interestingly enough, the report found that around two-thirds of most owner problems experienced in the first 90 days are attributable to vehicle design instead of mechanical failure. Specifically - echoing a refrain we've been hearing for the last few years - owners are having a hard time figuring out how to use the technology present in their new vehicles. Head over to the J.D. Power site for more information, or scroll down below for the company's related press release.

Continue reading New J.D. Power Initial Quality Study puts Porsche, GM in spotlight

New J.D. Power Initial Quality Study puts Porsche, GM in spotlight originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Aftermarket, Coupe, Performance, Europe, Videos, Specialty, Off-Road

It looks as if the Local Motors Rally Fighter will soon have some competition. The Korres Project 4 boasts a 7.0-liter LS7 V8 lifted from the Chevrolet Corvette Z06. With 505 horsepower shoved into a 3,527-pound package, the creation should have no trouble covering ground very quickly. Dimitris Korres, the Greek architect behind the Project 4, says his creation can clip to 60 miles per hour in 3.8 seconds on its way to a top speed of 186. That's all par for the course, but it's the machine's innovative suspension that makes it stand out from the crowd. Capable of increasing or decreasing its ride height as necessary, the Project 4 can cover all sorts of terrain at speed. With locking differentials front, center and rear, the creation has the potential to be very impressive. You can check out a pair of videos below for a better look. Note that the photos in the gallery show the bruiser with its body panels removed for a better look at its innovative suspension and bare aluminum chassis, and check out this link for more.

Continue reading Korres Project 4 is an on- and off-road Corvette-powered juggernaut [w/video]

Korres Project 4 is an on- and off-road Corvette-powered juggernaut [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The common stereotype of the polite, restrained midwesterner entirely breaks down in a little sliver of insanity called Lincoln, Nebraska. All the people have the reserved countenance and robustness of the God-fearing flatlander, yet that only serves to hide the real truth: These people are nuts. Is it football? is it the water? What is it about Lincoln?

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Thanks to a loophole, one team built their own Porsche 917 and raced it at Le Mans in 1981, ten years after the car was effectively banned. Maison Blanche has the whole story. (H/T!)

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The 24 Hours of Le Mans hasn't even started and already a Ferrari has crashed. This impact was big enough to break a tire wall and its retaining fence, as well as red flag the practice session.

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Here's the scenario: a "14-year-old in Indonesia" sits in front of a laptop, gives an evil laugh and says whatever is Indonesian for 'check this out.' He furiously types on the keyboard, dramatically hits "enter," and then immediately cars start crashing in LA. AOL says this can happen. We say that's bullshit.

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Filed under: Minivan/Van, Plants/Manufacturing, Chrysler, Dodge

Recent reports have suggested that Chrysler may soon phase out its long-running Dodge brand, and while the company remains mum on the subject, you can't blame analysts for thinking that's the direction the Pentastar's everyday brand is heading. After all, Chrysler has shown a willingness to shutter brands, having killed off Plymouth back in 2001, and it's putting big dollars behind its bid to build Fiat into a North American force. Chrysler also recently took the step of spinning off its trucks into the stand-alone Ram brand and relocated its halo Viper supercar under the SRT banner. Couple that with long-held gossip that the full-size Dodge Durango utility vehicle and the Avenger sedan are both living on borrowed time, and you've got a dwindling product portfolio. That would leave Dodge with the Dart compact (a model that isn't selling particularly well), the Charger (which has a mechanical twin in the Chrysler 300) and the Challenger, which could be supplanted by a rumored Chrysler/SRT Cuda. On the people-mover front, Dodge offers the aging Journey and the Grand Caravan, which is the twin to the bigger-margin Chrysler Town & Country. Stories for some time have pegged Chrysler as only moving forward with one minivan, though there has been some waffling as to whether the next-generation MPV would wear the Town & Country badge or that of the Grand Caravan. A new report out of Canada - where the vehicles are built - says that the winner in the sippy-cup derby is the next Chrysler Town & Country, which will carry a 2016 model year designation. In addition, sources report that T&C production at the Windsor Assembly Plant will be joined by an as-yet-unnamed large near-luxury crossover for 2017, another long-rumored model that could be similar in concept to the long-defunct Pacifica. The brand for this new model? You guessed it - Chrysler.

Next Chrysler minivan to be Town & Country only, fueling Dodge closure rumors originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What appear to be three very stupid criminals shot and killed a man three weeks ago in suburban Toronto, but not before slowly driving past five neighborhood security cameras. Can you help the police identify the car?

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With little fanfare or widespread media attention outside of Indiana, Carbon Motors filed for bankruptcy on June 7. It would seem that the saga of their purpose-built police cars with powerful BMW diesel engines has finally come to a sad and ignominious end.

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You, the Internet, raised $22,226 for "Easier Said Than Done," the next great rally documentary. Here's the trailer, and it looks amazing.

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We love wagons and we want to see more of them on the road instead of SUVs and bloated crossovers. Unfortunately, car makers are often afraid that the wagon body style won't sell well while driving up manufacturing costs.

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Filed under: Spy Photos, Coupe, Performance, Jaguar, Luxury

Jaguar's new F-Type is a pretty potent little pouncer. And while we do love a good roadster, many of us at Autoblog are perhaps more excited about the upcoming hardtop version of Jag's stylish new entry-level sports car. Why? Because even here in heavily camouflaged prototype form, the thing looks really, really good - the sleek roofline blending rather nicely into the F-Type's shapely rump, allowing for better distinction of its pronounced hips over the rear wheel wells. Mechanically speaking, the F-Type Coupe should be identical to its droptop sibling. That means the supercharged 3.0-liter V6 and 5.0-liter V8 engine lineup should carry over unchanged, though we've heard rumors about a four-cylinder application as well. There's also talk of hotter R, R-S or R-S GT models coming down the pipeline, and based on what we've experienced in things like the XKR-S, we certainly can't deny the allure of such a model. It's unclear exactly when Jaguar will show the production F-Type Coupe (at the Frankfurt Motor Show, perhaps?), but the car is expected to go on sale sometime in 2014. Check it out in our latest spy gallery, above.

Jaguar F-Type Coupe proves sexy can't be disguised originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mazda hasn't formally announced it yet, but the car you're looking at is almost certainly the 2014 Mazda3. It showed up in some Japanese magazine scans earlier this month, and now here it is in person, having popped up on a Russian Facebook account of all places.

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Filed under: Coupe, Hybrid, Performance, Videos, Porsche

With five months left until the 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder enters production, Porsche engineers are still putting the hybrid sports coupe through a battery of last-minute tests. To give us new reasons to ogle over the car - as if we needed any more - Porsche has released a short video showing the 918 Spyder undergoing shakedown tests in the hot Nevada desert. And you can't drive through Nevada without visiting Vegas, too, right? Although there's really nothing new to see in this video, it's still fun to watch as Porsche approaches one million test miles logged on this exciting new high-performance model. One interesting part (at around the 0:37 mark) shows the car taking off under electric power and then transitioning to engine power, which results in a mix of whirs and growls as the 918 Spyder switches from a 127-horsepower electric vehicle to an 887-hp hybrid supercar. Scroll down to watch - and hear - Porsche's latest creation in motion.

Continue reading Watch Porsche's 918 Spyder break a sweat while hot weather testing

Watch Porsche's 918 Spyder break a sweat while hot weather testing originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gathered here are the Oppositelock posts that people have put a good deal of effort into writing from the last 24 hours. Today it includes an homage to an old truck, taking a CLK AMG Black Series for a spin, and more.

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Back in April Orlove and I went to Team O'Neil Rally School for their "one day rally experience," which if I were in charge would be renamed "shit everyone should learn in order to be better, safer drivers." At the end of the day the instructors took us on a ride through the facility on the roads used in the more advanced classes (a clever strategy to show us all why we ABSOLUTELY MUST COME BACK FOR THE FIVE DAY CLASS!!!!11!!1!). Raph and I ended up in the car driven by rally veteran and one of the school's most senior instructors, Al Moody. That grin Orlove's wearing lasted all the way back to Massachusetts where he dropped me off and probably back to New York and into work the following Monday.

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Here's the diesel Mercedes wagon of Black Smoke Racing doing a smoky burnout, while the car smokes diesel soot, while the driver is smoking.

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Easily one of the most notorious disasters of the 1990s was the crash of TWA Flight 800 in July of 1996, which killed 230 people on their way from New York's JFK Airport to Paris. The probable cause of the crash was determined to be an accidental fuel tank explosion, but a new documentary is challenging that theory.

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Filed under: Wagon, Hatchback, First Drives, Fiat

Unexpectedly, This Opposite Attracts Back in 2007 when the Fiat 500 was launched, I was unrepentantly nuts about the thing. From the first time my eyes clapped on the Nuevo Cinquecento at the Geneva Motor Show that year, I wanted one. Since there were no plans for a North American model at the time, I had to settle for purchasing a 1/18th-scale diecast at the expo. When Fiat finally returned to the US and the Cinquecento went on sale in 2011, I was no less excited. And then I drove one, and the bloom was off my little Italian rose. Oh, I still appreciated its size and high style, but I found it wholly unsatisfying to drive, something that wouldn't be rectified until the Abarth arrived. It wasn't that the standard 500 was slow - I expected that - it was that its wonky driving position, lackluster transmissions and ropey steering all stood in the way of appreciating its other virtues. The Abarth's characterful powertrain would eventually come along to alleviate most of those pains, but not all of them. Now with the advent of the 500L for 2014, it appears I'm living the same scenario, albeit in reverse. My first encounter with this new, larger Fiat was also at the Geneva show, only this time, when the sheet was yanked off its flanks in 2012, I didn't like what I saw. The Italian marque hadn't just name-checked the Cinquecento with this larger five-door, it attempted to appropriate its amusing and iconic design by repeating key styling elements like its circular light fixtures and simple chrome bar grille (collectively known as the "whiskers and logo face"), along with rounded interior forms painted in body colors. To my eyes, the design just didn't work, yet I was still intrigued about the promise of a larger 500 and more polished driving experience.

Continue reading 2014 Fiat 500L

2014 Fiat 500L originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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